Beef Cow Production Trial

Beef+Lamb NZ and Massey funded research on Massey’s Tuapaka Farm is looking at a range of projects concerning beef cow performance, among them cow efficiency and the impact of beef breeding cows on the environment.

It’s been suggested that the performance of the beef cow herd in New Zealand has been stagnant for many years. That is reflected in calf marking averages which, based on 2013-13 figures, put the average at 83%. Some suggest that these results are due to a removal of beef cows off better country and onto harder areas.

B +LNZ are funding a cow efficiency trial on hill country breeding herds which started in 2012. The study is collecting cow production data from four farms.

Many farmers in New Zealand have traditionally selected cattle based on live weight to ensure an increase in carcass weight in steer offspring to improve the output from a beef cow operation. This has resulted in an associated increase in mature cow size, at least partially offsetting the increase in calf weaning weight.

Productivity and efficiency of beef cattle can be measured via kilograms of calf weaned per kilogram of cow or kg of feed intake, annually, and by number of calves reared in a cow’s lifetime.

Efficiency can be increased through greater calf weaning weights or through achieving similar weaning weights using smaller cows.

Productivity can also be increased by lifting the number of calves produced over a lifetime by calving heifers for the first time at two years of age and by getting good pregnancy rates and calf survival in subsequent years.

The object of the project is to try and work out what is the optimal cow efficiency and give farmers guidelines around the production benefits of various cow types.

In this project, four groups representing large or small beef cows and high or low milk production potential (Angus, Angus-Friesian, Angus-Jersey and Angus-Friesian-Jersey) are being evaluated over their lifetime. The study measures the effects of cow size and milking ability on onset of puberty in heifers, reproductive performance (including return to estrus after first calving).

They are also interested in the stayability/longevity in the herd to weaning of the fifth calf and the follicular dynamics in early life as a predictor of stayability. The project team are scanning ovaries each week to look at post-partum follicular development.

The study is also measuring calculated feed intake and efficiency of calf production, as well as lifetime productivity, longevity and cow wastage. The first three cohorts of progeny from these cows have been finished and assessed for growth rate, carcass conformation and meat quality.

In an associated trial researchers have been looking at the water quality impacts of breeding cows.

The project aims to quantify the impact of beef breeding cows in hill country on the environment through measurements of run-off and soil damage, as well as measurements of cow activity, body condition score and production.

This project is linked with the cow efficiency project so that the environmental impact of large and small cows can be compared.

A recent experiment looked at how farmers might alter the camping areas of mobs of cows by feeding supplements in a particular area of the paddock, so that they could potentially use that to move cows away from susceptible waterways.

The first site was the traditional hay feeding area and was located on a soil type prone to surface runoff. The second site was on a soil type that is well drained. Two groups of 15 beef cattle were fed in the two separate areas (0.3 ha each) and were monitored for their movement during the 6 week study using GPS collars. The results from this study are currently being analysed.